Electrical circuits may produce during their operation, large amounts of heat which may affect the performance of the circuits. Circuit arrangements, e.g. semiconductor relays, e.g. solid state relay SSR circuits, may include power semiconductor devices, which have high-current carrying capacity. Due to the high currents produced in relay circuits due to their high switching frequency, substantial amounts of heat may be produced during their operation. Heat removal systems are needed for improved heat removal from the electrical circuits and to ensure that heat may be removed effectively from modules in which electronic devices, e.g. power semiconductor chips, may be embedded.
The construction of modular relays, e.g. modules for housing relay circuits, e.g. solid state relay circuits, e.g. surface mount solid state relays, and individual surface mount device components may lead to particularly large amounts of heat generated during their operation. Due to limited space and high costs, solid state relays in current surface mount device components do not have a cooling concept or mechanism due to space and cost constraints. The systems are therefore usually current limited, due to the high amount of heat generated during their operation.
Currently available SSR modules which lack any additional cooling elements may have high mounting complexity, due to the need to carry each power device on a separate chip-carrier board. The lack of cooling elements to achieve optimal cooling of the device components results in poor thermal resistance. A currently available SSR module may include multiple chip-carrier boards, e.g. printed circuit boards, each carrying a power device. A carrier, e.g. a plastic platform, may be arranged to support a first chip-carrier board, e.g. a first chip-carrier board may be stacked substantially horizontally to the carrier over the carrier. A further chip-carrier board may then be stacked, e.g. mounted, substantially horizontally to the first chip-carrier board over the first chip-carrier board.
Another currently available SSR module may include a carrier, e.g. a plastic platform, to carry a chip-carrier board. The chip-carrier board may be stacked vertically to the carrier over the carrier, such that a heat dissipation layer formed over the back side of the printed circuit board may be exposed. The current design is insufficient for high current carrying SSR circuits, and are therefore limited to low current carrying circuits, e.g. currents ranging from about 5 A to about 10 A, as the design does not have additional elements in contact with the printed circuit board, to sufficiently improve cooling of the module for high current carrying SSR circuits.